Smashed up your computer? You’re not alone

Computer users lose around five days a year waiting for their slow PCs and laptops to load, and a large number resort to violence to vent their frustrations, according to a new study.

A survey of over 8,000 people, conducted by flash memory manufacturer SanDisk, found that U.K. users had lost more than 130 hours to slow-loading computers, programs or files over the last 12 months.

Things were even worse in Italy, where people wasted nearly seven full days waiting for sluggish technology. U.S. computer users, on the other hand, squandered the least amount of time – just 4.9 days.

And things often turn violent, according to the survey, with almost one-fifth of Brits admitting to relieving their anger by either throwing the device in question against a wall, or stamping on it.

The Americans and Chinese were the least likely to respond to slow technology with aggression, while Germans were the most likely to resort to violence, with 23 percent reporting that they had vented their frustration in a physical way.

Slow machines and time-intensive applications can also have a significant impact on people's mood, the study found. Almost one-third of British respondents said the issue would leave them in a bad mood for the rest of the day, while in China, 37 percent of those questioned said their mood was negatively affected by sluggish computers.

Some 8,001 people across the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, China, Australia and the U.S. were selected to take part in the online survey.